Monthly Archives: September 2014

In his morning Santa Marta homily Pope Francis warned against complaining, reminding listeners to put their troubles in perspective. On the other hand, like Job and our Lord one may find reason to complain, even perhaps growing frustrated with God.

“Is it blasphemy when Jesus complains – ‘Father, why have You forsaken me’? This is the mystery. I have often listened to people who are experiencing difficult and painful situations, who have lost a great deal or feel lonely and abandoned and they come to complain and ask these questions: Why? Why? They rebel against God. And I say, ‘Continue to pray just like this, because this is a prayer’. It was a prayer when Jesus said to his father: ‘Why have You forsaken me!'”

In drawing his comparison the Pope didn’t mention that it would be impossible for Jesus, who never sinned, to have uttered blasphemy against Himself.

Baghdad Patriarch Louis Sako continues to warn against Christians leaving Iraq. Catholic Culture reports. Apparently the bishop does not see such a decision as being necessarily helpful to the state of their souls.

Patriarch Sako also objected to a suggestion that American Catholics should provide homes for Iraqi refugees. He said that he is trying to persuade the faithful to remain in Iraq, to endure the current trials, and to maintain the Christian presence. “But many fall victim to this ‘leaving’ frenzy,” he lamented.

Migration is not the solution, the Patriarch said. Many refugees, he said, are “transferred from one bleak situation to another.” Away from their home and their culture and without proper pastoral care, they might be in worse condition abroad. “As if the migration of thousands of Iraqi Christians to the US was something to ask God’s blessing for!” he said.

Francis’ selection of Blase J. Cupich as the new pastor of the third-ranking diocese in the U.S. has plunged this particularly dynamic component of American Catholicism into a profound depression, almost to the edge of a nervous breakdown. It is enough to scan the reactions of the websites and bloggers of this area to grasp the embarrassment and disappointment over the appointment.

On the contrary, the more progressive segment of American Catholicism, historically hypercritical of the recent pontificates, has celebrated with enthusiasm the arrival of Cupich, called a “moderate” by the secular press, a description typically used in the United States to indicate a “liberal” who may not be radicalized, but is still a “liberal.”

Cupich’s predecessor, Cardinal Francis E. George, had written not long ago in a column for the diocesan newspaper:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the Church has done so often in human history.”

George has always been highly critical of the secular tendency in the legislative field established under the presidency of Barack Obama, whom he has known well since he was a senator for Illinois. But it is difficult to imagine that his prophecy will come true, at least for his immediate successor.

Magister goes on to list past notable decisions on the part of Bp. Cupich, reminding his readers that the bishop was last of the ten men considered to lead the U.S. Conference in 2013 and that, once again, Pope Francis seems to have ignored both the advice of the Congregation for Bishops and the local Conference in his appointment.